Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Pure, unadulterated JOY!

Time: 10:45 a.m.

Place: Doesn't matter, really. All that matters is this: wherever I was, it wasn't in the shade and it was hot!

Temperature (importantly): 34-35 degrees Celsius.

Condition: Wet and Wild! (not exactly in the most positive sense)

I was going back to get my cycle, parked outside the library(for convenience's sake; don't think otherwise) after completing some (as usual) long-pending work in the bank and the Senate building. I had only been walking for five minutes or so, and the transition from spring to summer quickly demonstrated itself, and as I bent down to unlock my cycle, drops of sweat trickled down to the thirsty earth, which wasted no time in sipping away my salty perspiration.
Amazing how the planet (and, sometimes, even the universe) seems to echo us humans' actions. If I were given a drink then (BUT NOT salty perspiration, for sure!) , I'd have gladly lapped it up, too. The unforgiving sun was surely taking its toll, with me struggling to turn the key and push the lever and after 35 long (and sweaty) seconds of wrestling with the lock, I was on my bicycle at last, ready to rush to the room for a refreshing glass of Tang (I have the orange flavour in my room now; got to switch over to lemon soon. Useless info.). The next few seconds, as difficult as they are to describe in words, give this post its title.

There are only a few things I like in the institute.

The Senate building- that grand old lady, majestically staring at us every morning through its magnificent watch-tower, with its carefully-manicured lawns, spread lavishly across its front yard, breathing fresh air every morning.

The new Central Library- the new kid in town, with state-of-the-art centralised air-conditioning, lighting and architecture inside, but an old-world charm in its look outside, with the the glorious white dome offering an insight into the golden past.

Third on the list comes a certain stretch of tarmac, right at the heart of the campus, joining the road separating the beauties mentioned above. The slope, a stretch of road starting from the turn at NIH into the Chemical and Metallurgy departments, and culminating at the new Central Library.
Oh, wait! I got the directions wrong!
The direction I mentioned takes you uphill- not exactly one of the most pleasurable experiences, especially at this time of the year.

The blissful experience is the other way around.

Time: 10:46 a.m.

Temperature (still): 34-35 degrees Celsius (Who knows, maybe more?).

Condition: Cannot be put in words- just takes the effect away.

I forget my sweat, the sense of dehydration, that delusional feeling, the (still) pending jobs, the approaching end-sems, Orkut, Firefox, Google, my always-under-construction quiz, money, friends, family, Earth, the solar system, Milky Way and 42- just about everything, and take in the pure joy of the rushing wind caressing my perspiring face, cutting through the seams of my (favourite) shirt and cooling my insides; my legs itching to take themselves off those pedals, my body urging to just fly, float away like the wind in contact with it...

It's only five or six seconds that one goes down that slope. But for those precious seconds, everything in the universe is just blank, just a plain, white screen imposing itself subtly on everything.

It's five or six seconds of being (to go down that oft-taken path) comfortably numb.

It's five or six seconds of pure unadulterated joy...

P.S.- Upper case letters and exclamation marks (as in the title) almost make the expression vulgar, don't they? Even bold face wouldn't have got THE effect. But, the three dots? Beautiful...

P.P.S.- (For readers from the insti) Fourth on the list(after a close battle with the entity in fifth) is LitSec (TM). Fifth is Kshitij.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

This one's for Dela: Alive and "Kickin'"!

Ah! Another broken promise. I promised myself not to post until the end-sems finished but then, the lure of watching increasing number of posts, loads of stuff to blabber on and Dela's last post have managed to break my fragile resolve and here I am typing away in the ICC (which, for the benefit of the confused, is the Institute Computer Center).

Fellow bloggers had been posting furiously for the past two weeks with varying issues to type on. While good ol' Chussaman decided to dearly praise our amazingly smart (Darn! When will I get that perfect sardonic tone?) Human Resource Development Minister, Big B's brilliont (sic) class auditioned for the silver screen at (what I feel is the) Bhoot Bungla back home and Dela had a close introspection, thanks to the results of some arbit 75-question test on a nicely-designed site.

Yours truly, on the other hand, while Wikipedia-ing and Wiktionary-ing his liver off (Ah, I love tabbed browsing! The joy of Ctrl+Tab-ing like crazy gives such bliss!), totally forgot what he was to banter on!

Hmmm...as I try to recall, I'd just like to add some useless information.

My corridor's ultimate unfulfilled wish had finally been granted (thanks to the creative genius of an inedible Sushi and a superhero called "The Bulk") with me, a la the rest of the corridor (namely Chussaman, Bhussaman, Japsi, Dhassu, Polu...) being finally bestowed upon with the not-always-desired honour of a nickname- HHH, the full form of which, I'm afraid, I can't reveal due to certain reservations (not to be confused with the magic number 27) about the readership of this not-really-read-just-some-blatant-showing-off blog. Well, it does contain a reference to my idiosyncratic hair-don't (Yeah, right! You give two hoots for that).
And, well, it does feel nice to be (as it would be in C++) referred to as The Cerebral Assassin (which this very page would gladly demonstrate).

Hmmm...what was I gonna write on? Aaargh!...

Chussaman also happened to touch upon another burning (literally!) issue with the whole Olympic torch relay being put off saga- something I'd love to have an opinion on, but for my blissful ignorance of the newspaper these days- all I can manage to lay my hands on daily is the Sudoku.

But, a little bit of riding the the WWW wave has brought the issue in front of the all-pervading cerebellum's court. But then, I refrain from commenting on any political issues on my blog; I guess I'm too flimsy when it comes to political views. So, I'd also refuse to blare out my reservations with the whole reservation policy, too.

Darn! Why does my memory cheat me when I so don't want it to!...

OK. I give up. I've totally forgotten what I wanted to type about and I'd rather not irritate you anymore.

Sorry, Dela. I guess there ain't no rescuing you from your boredom back at G-86/G-89/whatever-it-might-be-soon.

P.S.- By the way, Azad Bhawan is going to be my (official) refuge after May 12. Goodbye, S-123, Rajendra Bhawan!

P.P.S.- Monsieur Draupadi-var Lion is a nice guy.